PART II Additional Assignments

Read and respond to this article about the music industry and hearing loss.

WORTH: 10 points

The article is about how much sound or waves can human beings take, or listen to. The struggle that some musicians or listeners face when they are exposed to loud music, not just music any loud feature that would hurt the human’s ear. Tinnitus or ringing in the ear, is the feeling of of hearing ringing or buzzing or other sounds, it is often worse than loud noise, it is usually noticeable at night when the person is trying to fall asleep. It is the perception of sound when no external sound is present. The article exposing the extreme danger that might occur to humans when they are exposed to loud music and that might lead them to lose the sense of hearing. Usually the common things causes Tinnitus is getting old around age 60 or so, exposure to loud noise, ear bone changes and earwax blockage without cleaning the ear every once in a while.

The author is referring the earplugs block to help prevent musicians and listeners from losing their hearing sense, but the author cleared out the dangerous frequencies which is vocals and how that despite having a earplug block the vocals would not be blocked because it is sit on the high end of the mix and hard to capture because the artist usually have a little bit of distance between him and the mic and it is movable. The typical venue is usually played ranges from 98db to 115db and that may result in hearing loss. Most venus are played that much loud because artists can not simply control it and some they want to be able to hear themselves clearly and loud. 1khz and 4khz are regarded as the most dangerous frequency areas humans. The ear amplifies the 4khz area the most so 1khz is considered to be the most physically damaging frequency to the ear.

If music were played quieter at shows I would not probably feel as much excited nor dancing or crazy like how I feel in a loud atmosphere, I guess it is a matter of adaption as well, people got used to loud concerts and shows, they got used to party which means loud music, people acting crazy and happy. People would not feel as much excited as it should be when it is loud. Also loud music is a symbol of attraction, this is how shows attract their audience and make them focus and feel entertained by the show or the music itself.

Singing in the rain

This was a film about Don Lockwood who was a silent film star, dancer and singer and Lina Lamount. It is a musical comedy about the hollywood picture in the late 1920’s and how people transmitted from silent movies to sound ones. Lina felt in love with Don who ended up falling in love with someone else. The sound appeared around the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. The film at first was not successful and eventually they came up with the idea of musical sounds.

What I have learned from the history of the film industry that I’m pretty sure it was weird watching to objects without having sound, and that people started engaging more and more when sounds began engaging in films. I also believe that sounds made it much easier to communicate and no better because sounds such music, effects or any other form of sound is very effective in our lives nowadays.

Sound were added to films in the late 1920’s. It was mainly added to compete with other film companies and create something different and capable of better communication and make more money. Adding sound faced some challenges such as syncing dialogue with the characters, also getting the audience to get used to having characters with sound was very progressive and recording the sound itself were pretty challenging especially during this era of the film industry where things were kind of primitive in a way.

Hildegard Westerkamp is is a German and Canadian composer, radio artist and sound ecologist She composed many compositions that had to deal with acoustic environment. Her themes were mostly about urban or rural areas that has sounds, sometimes noises or silence. She is a pioneering figure within the field of soundscape studies and sound ecology and an integral member of the World soundscape project. She presents soundscape workshops, performs, writes and lectures internationally.

A soundscape is the study of acoustic ecology, it is the combination of sounds that is formed from an immersive environment. It includes natural acoustic environments such as plants,weather, animals vocalization also environmental sounds made by humans, musical sounds, conversations, work, mechanical machines.

Soundscape recordings are excerpts of moments in time, nothing else. What she meant was the point of the sound recordings is to listen to it once, and not to keep re-playing it over and over again and that in this moment they should be focusing to keep it the memory. In the soundscape the whole point is not to depend on “Playback”, and it always depends on the person and how they work with the recording. Memory stays active regarding to the use of the incidents in the back of our heads.

Soundwalk is basically the purpose of listening to environment, nature, this term was first used by the World soundscape project under the leader R.Murray Schafer. The essential purpose of the soundwalk is to encourage the participant to listen accurately, and moreover, to make critical judgments about the sounds heard and their contribution to the balance or imbalance of the sonic environment.

I think Hildegrad’s work is pretty impressive and creative just to have the patience to stop at each place to listen to the sound of nature. A lot of people has no patience for it, they’re mostly in rush. I think her work was pretty interesting, when I listened to the piece she recorded, it grabbed my attention to finish it until the end, the sound of animals and different industrial areas around, that was massive. I got the chance to hear all the soft and natural sounds around. It might be boring for some other people but I believe nature is a beautiful thing to enjoy and hear.